MINNEAPOLIS -- Joe Mauer won't play until after the All-Star break.
The Twins announced Wednesday that Mauer was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right oblique strain. Mauer suffered the injury in Tuesday's 10-2 victory over Kansas City and said after the game that it occurred on one swing. He left the game the next inning.
"It was pretty painful. I've never been shot before but it felt like I was shot," Mauer said Wednesday. "It felt worse this morning. After that swing, I knew it was pretty bad. But I tried to stay in there with hopes it would feel better but it didn't."
To take Mauer's spot on the 25-man roster, Minnesota recalled first baseman/outfielder Chris Colabello from Triple-A Rochester. Colabello was in Minneapolis before Wednesday's game but was not in the lineup.
It's the first DL stint of the season for Mauer, who did miss several games earlier in the year with a back injury. He said Tuesday that he'd been dealing with oblique soreness for about a week, but it didn't become problematic until Tuesday's game. As soon as the Twins heard the diagnosis, there was no hesitation about putting him on the DL.
"You always just want to give it time," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. "We called Colabello, obviously got that going last night thinking we'd probably have to make a move. But he could have walked in here today and said, 'Hey, I don't feel too much.' He could have popped something and just kind of strained it a little bit and been fine. We just kind of waited until this morning to make a decision."
When the injury occurred Tuesday, Mauer stayed in the game at second base until the end of that inning. He pulled up into second base and appeared to have tweaked something, so Gardenhire and a team trainer came out to check on him.
Gardenhire said Wednesday that he was previously unaware that Mauer had been dealing with an oblique issue and assumed Mauer's back was acting up again.
"I never even heard about it," Gardenhire said. "He's been doing a lot of extra work with his swing. We know he's been through his struggles. He's doing a lot of extra drills and just said he's sore from swinging. I thought it was his back, I really did. ... I didn't really know anything about any kind of soreness in his side or anything, and then here we go last night."
It's been a somewhat disappointing year offensively for Mauer, who is batting just .271 with two homers and 28 RBI in 76 games. But the six-time All-Star had started to hit better in the few weeks before the injury. The double on which he injured his oblique Tuesday extended his season-high hitting streak to 12 games. During that stretch, he batted .362 with 12 RBI and six doubles.
The DL stint means Mauer will not return until after the All-Star Game, which is being held at Target Field this year. Mauer is the Twins' All-Star ambassador but likely was not going to make an appearance in game itself.
"I'm sure it's something that he would have loved to have been a part of, but you know what, you get hurt, you get hurt," Gardenhire said.
The injury to Mauer gives Colabello another chance to prove he can hit at the big-league level. The 30-year-old journeyman, who spent time in independent ball before signing with the Twins, was one of the best stories in baseball this April when he batted .295 with three homers and 27 RBI.
His bat cooled off, though, and his average eventually dipped to .232 by late May. He also had just three RBI that month after leading the Twins in that category in April, and he was demoted to Rochester. It took him several games with the Red Wings to regain his swing, but Colabello said something clicked during a road trip to Charlotte. Since that trip (June 3), Colabello hit .318 with six homers and 25 RBI. He homered twice and drove in five runs Tuesday, just hours before finding out he would be getting on a plane to Minneapolis.
Despite a lack of sleep, Colabello was happy to be back in the big leagues.
"I'm just excited to get the opportunity to play," Colabello said. "You could send me to a men's league game and I think I'd be all right with it. I just want to play the game."
Colabello primarily played first base with Rochester, spending just one game in right field after his demotion. There's a chance he could split time between first base and right field, platooning at both with Chris Parmelee in Mauer's absence.
"I'll catch if they need me to," Colabello said.
Follow Tyler Mason on Twitter
